


The Girl at the Laundromat

by kishleylam



Category: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Genre: Awkwardness, Circumstantial Angst, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Pre-Canon, i just have a lot of feelings, if only Billy had McFreaking stayed a cinnamon roll, instead of a sin-namon roll, it's only angsty because you know what the ELE led to, okay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 23:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12143415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kishleylam/pseuds/kishleylam
Summary: After being rejected by the ELE, again, Billy contemplates giving up the persona of Dr. Horrible for good.





	The Girl at the Laundromat

“The Evil League of Evil has reviewed your application, blah blah blah, we regret to inform you…” Dr. Horrible sighed and threw the letter he was holding in front of him down on his coffee table. “I don’t think I need to finish reading that.”  
“Come on, man,” Moist said, clearly having the best intentions, “you should finish reading it at least. Maybe they didn’t want you in the ELE, but your application was too good, so they regret having to admit you...into…” He realized that he was doing more harm than good and shut up.  
“That’s almost a nice thought, Moist.” The Doctor removed his goggles and tossed them on top of the letter. In that moment, he didn’t feel so Horrible at all. He was just tired. He was just Billy.  
“I’m sorry, Doc. You can apply every 6 months, right? Just work on building up your application and apply again then.” Moist wrapped a...well, moist, arm around him in a comforting way.  
He jerked away. “Hey, I already have enough laundry to do today, and this lab coat really isn’t machine-washable.”  
Moist winced. “Right. My bad.”  
“Don’t worry about it.” Billy shook his head. “I’m just…yeah. I need to just take a minute.” He didn’t say, This is the nineteenth time my application has been rejected. He didn’t have to. He stood up suddenly and started heading to his room. “I’m actually gonna go ahead and go to the laundromat while I’m thinking about it.” He emerged a minute later, no longer wearing his lab coat and gloves, carrying a full laundry basket. A large white garment and detergent were visible on top of the pile.  
Moist was at a loss of exactly what to say to comfort him. He blurted, “Do--do you have your jacket?”  
“Yeah.” Billy took the jacket in question off a coat hanger and shrugged it onto his shoulders, shifting his basket but not setting it down. “Thanks.” He forced something of a smile and headed out the door.  
He held his basket close to his chest as if that would make the air outside any less frigid. It was the time of winter where the cold weather no longer felt like a novelty and had become more of a nuisance. His frequent sighs made puffs of crystallized breath. He really had thought his application was solid this year. How was he supposed to be taken seriously as a villain if he couldn’t even get into the ELE? This was probably why he was still stuck getting beaten up by Captain Toolbag all the time. If he got into the ELE, maybe he could get a nemesis with an IQ higher than his age. Or her age. A female nemesis could be cool, right? Maybe brute-forcing everything was just a male hero thing. He briefly fantasized about the terrific banter and clever fighting that could ensue, but he quickly shook such thoughts from his head. After all these years, somehow he didn’t think he was gonna get into the League. He would have by now.   
As he walked into the laundromat and set down his laundry, he began to wonder what he should actually be doing with his life. Clearly, villainy wasn’t working out for him. Maybe it was time for Dr. Horrible to die. Maybe he should just be Billy. As messed up as the world was, maybe there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Maybe there wasn’t anything he could do about anything. He faintly registered the bell of the laundromat ring as he put five quarters in the washing machine and started filling it with laundry, not bothering to separate colors and whites.  
“Are you using this?”  
Billy looked to the source of the soft voice. His mouth fell open, but no words would come out. No words could even come to mind in the face of...this.  
“That a no?” a woman with vibrant red hair and a face like a porcelain doll said, a smile in her voice and lighting up her face. Billy swore he could hear his heart pounding.   
“No, it, I, uh, what?” he said intelligently.  
The woman laughed brightly. “This machine. Do you need to use it? If you do, I can use one of--”  
“No! No, I’m, I’m not, you can,” he stammered. His eyes squeezed shut tightly a few times, and he took a deep breath. “Go for it.” He tried to smile at her, but it only held for maybe a second. Mortified, he turned away from her and began hastily shoving the remainder of his laundry in his own washer. A quick glance at her as she did the same let him see a name tag pinned to her sweater. Penny. He tried not to dwell on how much he liked that name.  
He spent the remainder of his time at the laundromat that day putting a lot of effort into not being noticed and not noticing her. He was pretty confident in his success at the first part, but had sorely failed at the second. He may not have actually spoken to her aside from a few stuttered sentence fragments, but he could tell two things. One, she was remarkable. Two, Billy wasn’t remarkable enough for a girl like her. Heck, Dr. Horrible, as things stood, wasn’t enough for her. He’d have to get into the ELE, become the nightmare that Dr. Horrible could be, to be remotely enough for someone as breathtaking and strong as her. But he could do that.  
Dr. Horrible guessed it was time to get started on his twentieth application.


End file.
